Bread from Mount Athos
Try the monastic recipe used by the monks of Mount Athos and make delicious blessed sourdough bread. The taste of traditional sourdough bread is incomparable to any other. Fresh leavened bread has a leading role in the monks diet and is never missing from the trapeza of the monasteries. Fluffy, with a strong aroma, it is an ideal accompaniment for your oily fasting foods and not only that.
In the evening, we put the sourdough in a container and "feed" it with a little warm water and a little flour so that it becomes a porridge.
We cover the dish with a towel and leave it in a warm place to rise.
The next day, we sift the flours and put them in a bowl.
We create a puddle in the center and pour in the "fed" sourdough.
We dissolve the salt in warm water and add it to the basin.
We pour as much lukewarm water as needed so that the dough does not stick to our hands while kneading.
We divide the dough into greased pans or forms and cover with towels.
We let loaves rise in a warm place until they double in size.
We score the surface of each loaf and bake at a high temperature for about an hour.
If we don't have sourdough, we can use 1.5 tbsp fresh yeast which we dissolve in warm water before pouring it into the flour.
The flavor of the bread will take off if we bake it in a traditional wood oven.
On the days when we don't even eat oil, we don't oil our pans, but bake on floured sheets, like the monks do on Mount Athos.
